Houston City Council approved Mayor John Whitmire’s $7.5 billion fiscal year 2027 budget Wednesday in a 15-1 vote.
The spending plan is built around two new revenue mechanisms that have drawn sharp criticism from City Controller Chris Hollins and one council member who cast the lone dissenting vote.
The budget takes effect July 1 and includes a new $5 monthly administrative fee tied to residential trash collection, along with a right-of-way charge on the city’s water and wastewater utility operations. Together, the two measures are projected to generate more than $200 million annually, according to city officials. The trash fee alone is expected to bring in between $24 and $25 million per year.
Hollins, who certified the budget earlier this week after making clear that doing so carried no endorsement of the plan, gave the spending document a failing grade following the vote.
“If I were grading this budget, this budget would get an F,” Hollins said. “On transparency, on accountability, and on the financial ground that it’s putting the city on.”
He called the budget riddled with “gimmicks” and accused the administration of concealing the true financial burden on everyday Houstonians. Hollins also took aim at the trash fee specifically, arguing that lower-income residents would bear a disproportionate share of the cost compared to what a property tax increase would have required from them.
When he certified the budget Tuesday, Hollins stressed the decision was a legal determination, not a policy judgment. “Certification is not a test of optimism. It is a test of certainty,” he wrote in a letter to Whitmire and council members.
He warned in that letter that the right-of-way fee, which still requires approvals from outside entities including potentially the Texas Water Development Board and the Texas Attorney General’s Office, poses “significant issues of uncertainty” for the coming fiscal year’s general fund revenues.
Councilmember Edward Pollard cast the sole no vote. Pollard argued that despite growing expenditures over the past two fiscal years, the city has produced none of the results residents are owed. “Over the last two fiscal years, our city has faced the largest budget deficits in the city’s history,” Pollard said. “Are we getting better streets? Are we more affordable housing? Are we less homelessness? Are we better trash collection? Stronger infrastructure? The answer is no.”
He said the $5 trash fee lacks specificity about what residents will actually receive in return.
Several council members who voted yes made clear their support was conditional.
Councilmember Amy Peck said she remains convinced the city should consider exiting the trash collection business altogether, citing a consistent failure to deliver adequate service. While she said she was willing to give the mayor’s new approach a chance, she warned that if service levels do not improve measurably, she would personally author an ordinance to repeal the fee.
Councilmember Joe Panzarella said his yes vote should not be read as blanket support and came with expectations for accountability.
Councilmember Alejandra Salinas expressed reservations about drawing funds from the water utility but said she trusted the administration’s assurances.
The vote caps weeks of public hearings, debate, and an extended council session that initially pushed the vote back to June 10 after members opted to tag the budget during proceedings earlier this month.
Whitmire has defended the budget as a necessary step toward stabilizing the city’s finances, telling council members ahead of the vote, “I’m just as confident today as I was a month ago when we rolled it out.”
The clash between Whitmire and Hollins over Houston’s financial direction has played out across multiple budget cycles.
Over the past year, the two have publicly sparred over $72 million in unbudgeted overtime spending across police, fire, and solid waste departments, the city’s structural deficit, and a court-ordered drainage settlement that complicated last year’s budget process. Hollins has repeatedly warned that the city’s reliance on one-time fixes and optimistic revenue projections risks a future credit downgrade.
